Good supplements can be expensive; I found myself waiting until the first of the month (today) to go to my local natural product store to pick up some of my daily supplements that I ran out of last week. In college, I used to wait until my next paycheck so I could buy the newest CD; now I have to plan my budget around supplements.
But to me, good supplements are worth the cost. I could go to a big box store and buy synthetic vitamins and fillers, but I choose to invest in my health.
This check-balancing act I performed, combined with an event I attended last week got my mind focused on the cost of supplements and health care in general. The Natural Health Research Institute?s?(NHRI) Annual Scientific Symposium is in its sixth year of focusing on using supplements to reduce health care costs. This year, I was able to fly out to Chicago to attend the event.
Speakers focused on fixing the looming health care crisis going on in America; many of us are sick and getting sicker, yet we are spending a lot more than other countries on heath care. Maybe this didn't seem like such a big deal when times were good, but the economy isn't doing so hot right now.
Many of the speakers, such as Allen Dobson, Ph.D., cofounder and president of Dobson, Davanzo and Association LLC, and Russell Jaffe, M.D., Ph.D., CCN, senior fellow, Health Studies Collegium, talked about the Lewin study from 2006, which found calcium plus vitamin D could save $16.1 billion, folic acid could save $1.4 billion, lutein with zeaxanthin could save $3.6 and omega-3 essential fatty acids (EFAs) could save $3.2 billion over five years, all by reducing disease.
Meg Jordan, department chair, professor of Integrative Health Studies, California Institute of Integral Studies, talked about creating new health care models that incorporate social connections and life coaching, and Artemis P. Simopoulos, M.D., FACN, noted balancing the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio is a cost-effective way to stay healthy, while Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive director of the American Botanical Council (ABC), covered the numerous studies showing the efficacy of herbs.
It's difficult to know exactly how much supplements actually save a person, in terms of both costs and emotional and mental hardships. When the "n" of a study is equal to one, it's impossible to do a randomized, placebo-controlled study. But, I feel that the supplements I take, while they may make me strategize my spending, are reducing my ?long-term health care costs.
Wise retailers may want to develop marketing methods of this concept for their shoppers who aren't as lucky as I am to attend these types of events. I suggest natural product store owners have copies of the Lewin study available to their customers, and have responses ready for when shoppers ask why a certain product has a higher price tag than a "similar" product on sale at Wal-Mart. Brand owners are more than happy to explain to inquiring retailers why the quality of their product demands a higher price point.
And, I'm also curious to know if supplement sales tend to go up on the first and 15th of the month. I'd be interested to know if others are like me who plan their supplement purchases around paychecks.
marie osmond st louis cardinals josh hamilton beavis and butthead cardinals jennifer nicole lee jennifer nicole lee
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.